Dark Munster

He's pulled his strop apparently. Hopefully not too serious, but with our staff who knows.

Just our weekly new injury I suppose. We're not regularly at the top of that table for nothing.

Indeed, he was out for over a year with a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament.

Straw man argument there. We just want him to have a squad without gaping holes (the huge holes being a clinical striker, a solid CB pairing, and a decent back up GK).

http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/39502877 Same should've been handed out for that weasel Vardy.

I agree, it's disgraceful Puel insists on playing Long without Mane. Not to mention stubbornly refusing to play our one goal-scoring striker (Gabbi) until more than half the season has passed. And on top of that, he's dropped him again, and hasn't picked our best CB since we beat Leicester. Oh, and it's unfathomable he hasn't picked Austin for months, and seemingly dropped Fonte permanently. The man doesn't have a clue.

He doesn't actually have to score, his constant threat terrifies the opposition and opens it up for our other players, and having a goal-scorer lifts the whole team. For example, he only scored one of the 4 goals against Watford.

We go for quality and quantity when it comes to injuries.

Les doesn't lie. He just gives alternative facts.

Good post. A mention about Long, who is the Puel-out mob's poster child of a player who has gone backwards. He thrived last year because he was playing a lot next to Mane. The two of them formed a great partnership (who wouldn't thrive next to Mane?) This season he is Laurel without Hardy (maybe not the best comparison, but you get my point). And as I keep trying to say to the Puel-out mob, the whole team suffers without a goal-scorer on the pitch. It drags the whole team down knowing that they probably need to keep a clean sheet to have a chance of any result. Hence a lot of tentative sideways passing. And when we finally got Gabbi in, look at how the whole team dramatically improved. Playing Utd off the park at Wembley as one example. Two consecutive away games scoring 4 goals. If Puel had Gabbi and VVD available we'd be ripping a lot of teams a new one.

Please read my posts again.

Puel doesn't play a formation that suits Long, because he doesn't have Mane. His formation does works fine for a quality striker that can finish (Gabbi). If he (Gabbi) had been signed when we needed him (at the beginning of the season) I bet we'd be challenging Everton for a European spot. And made it past the group stages in the EL.

We'll have to agree to disagree. But at the end of the day the video ref is there to aid the pitch ref, much like the linesman. The more help the better.

As has been said many times, a quality striker raises the whole team, and conversely a lack of a goal scorer drags the whole team down. Long is the perfect example, who excelled when alongside Mane. Puel has shown that he can get the team to play superb football, as long as key players aren't injured (or, for most of the season, a striker not bloody signed yet). If you want to have a go at anybody it's Reed for not bringing in/replacing required players soon enough.

Why is it that the Puel-out mob can't put two and two together? For most of the season we struggled for consistency due to not having a striker who could score. Not Puel's fault. They didn't listen to us. Then Gabbi comes in, and as we predicted the performances improved dramatically, including playing Utd off the park at Wembley (with a disallowed goal). The Puel-out mob go silent. But rather than admit they're wrong, they bring out their knives again now that Gabbi is injured, with the resulting return to form of a team which doesn't have a striker who can score.

If Gabbi, VVD and Austin were not injured, and we hadn't played Utd off the park at Wembley (with a legitimate goal disallowed) you may have a point. But they are, and we did, and you don't.

Sorry Gramps, that's rubbish. The ref's view can be obstructed, whereas a camera can zoom in from multiple angles. And on top of that, the major advantage is the video ref can replay the incident in slow motion. The ref has one instantaneous look (possibly obscured) from ground level and that's it. There's no comparison.

And it doesn't mean our staff are doing something blatantly wrong, more of a case they could be doing a lot better. And it's not just the treatment of injuries, it's the prevention of potentially avoidable ones like hamstrings (not a Vardy assault).

Short term that's true, but over the long term you can see a pattern. Compare our record (and Arsenal's) versus Leicester's, and tell me that we and Arsenal are consistently unlucky and Leicester are consistently lucky. Sorry I don't buy it.

Evidence seems to suggest otherwise. We've certainly got first class facilities (thank you Markus) but maybe not the best people.

Penalties are extremely difficult to judge by a ref on the pitch. Diving even more so.

Several angles can be done quickly. And if it's not conclusive the benefit of the doubt goes to the attacker. It's not that complicated, it'll be just like replacing the linesman on that side of the pitch with two linesmen (the extra one being much more competent ). Also it'll be the ref's call if another incident occurs shortly after.

VVD aside, I wonder if this may be an explanation for the club's appalling injury record? Comparing our number of injuries, and length out, to other clubs (especially Leicester) begs the question: what the **** is going on?